[sh9730]

New here - nice forum. I have posted a lot about this on City-Data. First off, this project is very real - is there still a chance that it wont be built? Sure...lots of things still need to be finalized - working with ADOT and nearby property owners about the costs to improve the main roadway structures out to I-10 about 4 miles away from the project location - about a mile of it is already pretty done due to the mall already in place and the Sam's Club to break ground this month. The other is still all to be decided. Also, they are still working to get enough vendors to fill the spots...though my understanding is that they are getting more all the time.

All of the city approvals of the GENERAL plans have already been approved etc. Of course final designs will still need to come before council before building will be started - but the developers have been working with the city pretty closely so there should be minimal issues when those come up.

Next, remember, the drawings (and there is a video also) represent the ENTIRE built out project. The INITIAL phase is only the 1.5 million SF convention/display building and then a couple of apartment complexes for workers and a general purpose hotel. All the residential shown, and office buildings are all future phases as needs warrant. The developers believe, based upon their experience in Dubai is that once the center goes in, the other facilities will be needed within 5 years or so as logistics etc related to the activity of the Phoenixmart itself. Then will be the residential to support that activity. The higher end resort will also be a future phase...but like Phase II because CG lacks a real high end hotel right now.

Remember, this is NOT A RETAIL project. This is in essence a full time convention center. A typical vendor would display SAMPLES of their available product line in one of the 2000 booths at the center, a WHOLESALE buyer would examine them their, and then place orders - typically in larger quantities. Manufacturing (especially initially) will likely NOT be occurring anywhere near Phoenixmart, though again in Dubai, many vendors did eventually move shipping and logistics operations close to the center, which may occur here...

A quick example would be a Holiday Inn hotel purchasing agent who doesn't want to travel all over to look at 10 vendors products they need to buy for hundreds of hotels. They would fly into PHX, drive to CG ONCE, stay here, spend a couple of days visiting all the vendors in one place and then place orders as needed and then head back to PHX to go home. Retail will be a small small part of this concept.

Phoenixmart will also hold actual conventions of various industries year round in an effort to help their vendors increase sales.

As to why CG? Because the rules of the EB-5 immigrant program allow for a 500K investment in rural/underserved areas vs. a 1MIL minimum for investment in more established areas. This allows for a wider investment pool. Remember this is a 150 MILLION dollar project so they wanted to keep open to more investors.

SO, that's sort of it...Im becoming more confident at least the first phase will be built with this latest announcement....will it be a long term success? Don't know about that....

But we need it here in CG...so Im hopeful.